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Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna worked together in two films, but their escalating rivalry sent them down their individual paths. Amitabh was seen as Rajesh’s successor, but by the 1990s, both had witnessed massive declines. Nearly two decades after they’d last worked together, the two icons came together for a landmark interview, during which they opened up about their failures, their relationships, and everything in between. The conversation, orchestrated for a 1990 issue of Movie magazine, also turned philosophical, when the subject of Amitabh’s near-death experience on the sets of the film Coolie came up.
Asked about it, he said, “Well… it disturbed me very much, but you cannot compare that incident with anything else. It was an unnatural situation. Of course, it affected me for a very long time because I didn’t know how to pay the people back. That always disturbed me. Jaya and I spent long hours trying to figure out how to return the immense love.”
Rajesh was very curious to learn about Amitabh’s near-death experience, and asked if it changed him in any way. “Did it make you a better human being? Did it make you more humble? Or did it make you feel a super man, knowing that you had conquered death?” he asked. Amitabh replied, “I think the people outside talked more about it than me. I haven’t had the time to really reflect on it. I haven’t really analysed that moment as Kaka would like me to. I have shut it away somewhere. Maybe when I am old and tired, I may reflect on that moment. One can only thank the people who prayed.”
Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan (left) in Anand.
Amitabh admitted that his family was probably more affected by the ordeal than him. Rajesh declared that he isn’t scared of death at all. “If on my death bed, I am asked, I shall say that I have no regrets, I have had the best of everything. So when death comes, I’ll just smile. I know that I have missed nothing, and if I am given this life again, I’ll go through it exactly the same way… A king dies a king! He might not have a following. He might be dying alone, lost in a desert but he will still be a king, whether on the throne or in exile!”
Amitabh, on the other hand, said that he wouldn’t wish what he went through even on his ‘worst enemy’. Curious to know how he separates his professional life from his personal life, Rajesh asked Amitabh, “There is no dividing line in my case. There’s always some hangover which you carry back home. Just as I have my affairs and women, do you carry your violence home?”
Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan with their respective spouses, Jaya Bachchan and Dimple Kapadia. (Photo: Express Archive)
Saying that he is ‘terrible’ at romance, Amitabh replied, “I can’t answer that question. I don’t even know whether I am doing it well on screen. All I can say is that I am given my lines and do what I have to do, after which, when its pack-up time, it’s pack up.”
Amitabh reflected on his declining influence as a leading man, and said that his approach is more rational as compared to Rajesh’s. “Eventually, you know, we are all going to end up doing character roles whether we like it or not! It’s difficult for people in India to accept me as a leading man anymore. But Kaka has been a romantic all his life, he’s romanticising even death, so perhaps he will continue to play romantic roles and one wishes him all the best. But, the fact is that, I will not be able to.”
Rajesh Khanna died at the age of 69 in 2012. Amitabh, who will turn 82 this year, recently starred in his biggest-ever hit, the science-fiction film Kalki 2898 AD.
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